The Buenos Aires Institute of Housing Has Some 15,000 Houses Allocated Without Deeds
<p><span style="line-height: 20.8px;">In addition, more than 300 buildings constructed between 2003 and 2005 were never delivered because the connection utilities of water, gas, and electricity were not executed. The Audit of the City of Buenos Aires says that these "unfinished situations" are repeated in previous reports together with a "low production" of the organism despite an increase in staff.</span></p>
A report by the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Soanish) detected the "permanence of unfinished situations" in the work of the Institute of Housing (IVC, for its acronym in Spanish) in regard to past exams. Among the study's observations it figures that the body responsible for housing policy has some 15,000 houses allocated without deed and 300 buildings constructed between 2003 and 2005 that could not be delivered to its recipients because the connection works were not executed in infrastructure Services such as water, sewer, gas and electricity, "the process did not anticipate these works from the time of planning," said the AGCBA.
Moreover, "comments associated with low quantitative level in the production of IVC are reiterated," said the Watchdog. During the year of the report, 2006, 1,871 home were delivered and, according to the accrued by the Institute budget, each house cost $ 165,944 (US $ 51,857). During this period there was an increase of resources, especially human, compared to earlier years that did not impact on the management indicators, were recorded: "The increase in staff did not translate into an improvement in the production of the body," said the report, adding that the grouping of employees by area "does not appear to support any apparent logic."
The IVC closed its registry of beneficiaries in 2004 with 47,060 registered and according to the AGCBA, no specific classifications created a new demand. "There is no real definition of the population affected" by the housing shortage, the report said. This "uncertainty", which translates to not knowing who built the Institute, prevents evaluations and results as well as the impact of its various programs.
Furthermore, in the implement these programs "there is no indication of the risks of the decisions taken." For example, for the AGCBA it is "striking" that there is no "proper allocation of resources" for plans where a "critical" housing situation as the tenements is presented. Also, the results of the program slums, born in 1984, are "meager" and their difficulties are related, among other factors, to "inadequate management processes of urban land": in the case of the Slum 3, for example, the lands of the City Government have yet to be transferred to the IVC, as well as the land redistribution. Another irregularity discovered by the watchdog is that there is "no system of targeting organized according to emergency and the characteristic of the family group."
The AGCBA noted that there is no "single, transparent, and computerized" methodology to provide adequate control in the process of allotment of houses and their degree of reliability is "low".
"The institutional weaknesses of IVC adversely affect the direct improvement" of the situation of those with housing deficit, concluded the audit.